Right-wing, anti-abortion activist Randall Terry interrupted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she spoke outside the Capitol building last Thursday on the new Democratic healthcare reform bill. Terry yelled, “Nancy Pelosi, you will burn in hell for this!”

Pelosi responded by thanking the “insurance companies of America.” Terry and his small crew of right-wing Christian militants staged a street theatre protest earlier that day as Congressional workers were arriving at their jobs. The handful of protesters were dressed for the upcoming pagan holiday as demons, with one wearing a Pelosi face mask, and another the likeness of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Terry, who founded the notorious Operation Rescue, is on a crusade against healthcare reform that includes a government option because he says it will provide abortions, even though President Obama has stated that it will not. Since August, Terry has been running around the country disrupting town hall meetings and threatening violence to government officials who support abortion.

Terry used the upcoming Halloween holiday to announce a scary contest for the conservative Christian set. The kind who run around with “fags burn in hell” signs at funerals.

Terry called on his comrades to participate in “Burn in Hell,” anti-healthcare reform protests by lighting up effigies of Pelosi and Reid. There’s even a youtube video showing the faithful how to build the effigies and set them ablaze.

Participants in these demonstrations were encouraged to send in their photos and videos from their Halloween burnings for a chance at prizes, including a Washington trip during Roe v. Wade anniversary week in January. Roe v. Wade was the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in America.

Explained Terry, “We are giving people a way to peacefully vent their anger at the murder that Pelosi and Reid are trying to ram down our throats.”

Of course, by “murder” he’s not referring to the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or the countless poor folks who die because they cannot afford to pay for healthcare.

“If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid force us to pay for child killing and they die unrepentant, they will burn in hell for this,” Terry told the Huffington Post. But not for allowing more children to die in the wars or because their parents can’t afford healthcare.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, was not thrilled with the contest: "I don't think appealing to people's anger and in effect inciting them to acts which either display or in any way project violent acts is consistent with rational discussion of very critical issues."

But it is consistent with the way right-wing Christians have always dealt with those they don’t like. When they weren’t burning witches and faggots in ages past, they were inciting violence against Jews and others.

Terry can say that the intention of his burnings was a peaceful venting of anger, but those of us who have been victims of his brand of Christianity don’t find his words very reassuring.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca is co-editor of Avanti Popolo: Italians Sailing Beyond Columbus, and editor of Smash the Church, Smash the State: The Early Years of Gay Liberation, which has been nominated for an American Library Association award. His website is www.avicollimecca.com.